June 5, 2018
NEET question paper row: Mamata Banerjee slams Centre
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today chaired a meeting to take stock of the health situation in the State. At the end of the meeting, she expressed her satisfaction with the services provided by doctors, nurses and health workers.
The Chief Minister slammed the Centre for rising prices of life-saving medicines. She said since the Centre has increased the prices, the medicines are unavailable at many places, due to which, common people are suffering.
She also slammed the Centre for the question paper fiasco in NEET. She said, “In this year’s NEET exam, students from our State could not perform well because of problems in translation. English and Bengali papers were different. They are not giving priority to regional needs. Students who speak the local language are thus getting disadvantaged. We have already written to the Centre on this issue.”
Treatment at hospitals in Bengal is given free of cost. There has been a sea-change in the infrastructure of hospitals. Fair price medicine shops and diagnostic centres have been set up. Procedures like dialysis are performed at lower costs. Pacemakers and stents are given for free.
As a result, patients from neighbouring States and countries are coming to Bengal in large numbers, thus increasing the pressure on State hospitals. 27,000 new beds have been added.
The CM urged doctors to provide service with a smile. She also instructed the administration to prevent untoward incidents of vandalism and violence at hospitals in the State.
